"That was a very interesting and concerning read. I hadn't realized that autotcratic leaders with few constraints on thier behavior were becoming more numerous and so their individual psychology becomes more important. Given that absolute power is psychologically corrosive both morally and in decision making that is not a happy thought at all.
I'm not sure you're giving enough credit to the "bureaucracy". The various memoirs of people who served in the Trump administration all recount times in which they resisted Trump's impulsive dictates. Granted, it's a skewed sample but Esper, Milley, Bolton, et.al share such anecdotes.
I recall Nixon'x aides did much the same thing. And before that Neustadt wrote about similar processes.
Possibly it's less a decline in the formal and informal checks on the president and more that presidents from Carter through to Obama didn't need to be managed or resisted by their aides and bureaucracies?
Found you book in second-hand store yesterday and that's how I found your blog. I plan on starting the book ASAP although reading about the Toddler-n-Chief just makes my BP skyrocket and irriates me to no end.....
"That was a very interesting and concerning read. I hadn't realized that autotcratic leaders with few constraints on thier behavior were becoming more numerous and so their individual psychology becomes more important. Given that absolute power is psychologically corrosive both morally and in decision making that is not a happy thought at all.
I'm not sure you're giving enough credit to the "bureaucracy". The various memoirs of people who served in the Trump administration all recount times in which they resisted Trump's impulsive dictates. Granted, it's a skewed sample but Esper, Milley, Bolton, et.al share such anecdotes.
I recall Nixon'x aides did much the same thing. And before that Neustadt wrote about similar processes.
Possibly it's less a decline in the formal and informal checks on the president and more that presidents from Carter through to Obama didn't need to be managed or resisted by their aides and bureaucracies?
Found you book in second-hand store yesterday and that's how I found your blog. I plan on starting the book ASAP although reading about the Toddler-n-Chief just makes my BP skyrocket and irriates me to no end.....